The most common OS X El Capitan problems and their solutions. How to reinstall macOS on a MacBook I can’t install mac os

With its own pre-installed Mac OS operating system. Like all the company's products, it claims to be of exclusive quality and the use of advanced technologies. The following varieties are currently on sale:

MacBook;
MacBook Air;
MacBook Pro.

Find out how to update your Mac OS in the article below.

MacBook Pro is available in 13-inch and 15-inch sizes and in different specifications. All Mac models are equipped with Intel processors, the battery life without recharging is up to 10 or up to 12 hours.

The newest operating system currently used on Mac computers is Mac OS Sierra. Older versions of the OS can be updated for free via the Internet. The company's main advantage of the system is that it was created specifically for Mac equipment. Unlike Windows, which is installed on computers from a variety of manufacturers. By the way, now MacBook Pro and other models support the ability to install Windows.

MacBook Pro and others are sold with the system already installed. However, in some cases, you may need to install or reinstall Mac OS on your MacBook. It is necessary to distinguish between the terms:

The installation is otherwise called a “clean” installation, which is performed on a blank (formatted) hard drive or on a new one.
Reinstallation is when a new system is installed on top of the old one without full formatting and preserving user data.

The need to install and reinstall the Mac OS arises when there are serious problems with its operation or an unsuccessful update. Like Windows, it still leaves behind garbage, which over time leads to slowdowns, freezes and other troubles. We will consider these processes using the example of the latest operating system, namely Mac OS Sierra. For previous versions, such as Mac OS X, there will be essentially no differences, but it is still recommended to update to the latest version if your device supports it.

Operating system installation

A clean installation may be necessary if you decide to sell your laptop and need to permanently remove all data and Apple ID from it, or if there is a serious system problem. The installation algorithm on a MakBook Pro looks like this:

Data backup.
Creating a bootable USB flash drive.
System installation.

To back up your data, use an external drive and the Time Machine program, which automatically launches when you connect a removable drive. The utility will ask whether to use an external drive for backup, click “Use.” as a backup drive."

After the backup is complete, you need to make a bootable USB flash drive using disk utility:

The MacBook Pro itself will find the desired image on the flash drive and begin installing the Mac operating system. You just need to follow the instructions on the screen.

Reinstalling the operating system

You can reinstall the system from the OS recovery menu on Mac OS, which is called up by a key combination during boot:

Command+R - reinstalls the latest version of the OS installed on the Mac, without updating to the latest.
Option+Command+R - update to the latest compatible Mac OS.
Shift+Option+Command+R - if macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or a newer version is already installed on your Mac, then pressing the combination will allow you to reinstall the OS that came with your Mac laptop.

After pressing these key combinations, a menu will appear in which you need to select “Reinstall Mac OS”. Next, do the following:

When the name Mac OS Sierra is displayed, click Next.
Select the drive on which you will install the system (usually called Macintosh HD).
The system reinstallation will begin, after which the Mac laptop will boot as usual.

All data, including passwords and Apple IDs, will be saved, as well as user data. But still create a backup copy before reinstalling, just in case. Reinstallation is also sometimes called recovery, since it often helps solve performance and performance problems. If the problems have not been corrected, then you can already try installing a system with formatting the boot disk on your MacBook, not forgetting to copy all the data to an external drive, because after this procedure they will all be deleted.

Quite often, Mac users are faced with the following problem - how to return the computer to factory settings, resetting all user information, and reinstall the operating system completely. Instructions for this process are presented below.

The Mac, like most other Apple devices, is intended for personal use. This means that usually computer owners fine-tune the system for themselves and another user will not be entirely comfortable working with it. If there is a need to completely get rid of existing data and settings, then you need to follow the simple steps described below.

Clean installation of macOS: preliminary steps

IMPORTANT: Before a clean installation (reinstallation, flashing, factory reset) of a Mac, be sure to check:

Is your Mac tied to your Apple ID and not some other one?
Do you remember the credentials (username and password) of your Apple ID. You can check, for example, by logging in (from your computer).

The fact is that if the Find Mac function was activated on the Mac (located along the path: System Preferences → iCloud → Find Mac), then after reinstalling the system (resetting to factory settings), the system will ask you to enter the Apple ID to which the device is linked .

How to find out (see) which iPhone, iPad, Mac are linked to Apple ID.
How to recover (reset) a forgotten Apple ID password for iCloud, iTunes and App Store.
What will be deleted if you sign out of iCloud on iPhone, iPad and Mac?

How to reset Macbook, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro to factory settings (how to reinstall macOS)

1. Make sure you have an Internet connection (for later installation of macOS), as well as a power connection in the case of a MacBook.

Attention! Further actions will lead to the complete deletion of ALL data on the Mac - save the necessary information on external media in advance;

2. Restart your computer (or turn it on if it was turned off) using the  menu → Reboot;

3. During the reboot process, press and hold the key combination that suits you best:

⌘Cmd + R– installing the version of macOS that was running on the computer before problems arose. Those. your Mac will install exactly the same version as before.

⌥Option (Alt) + ⌘Cmd + R– Update to the latest version of macOS that your Mac is compatible with. For example, if the Mac was running High Sierra, and the breakdown occurred after the final build of macOS Mojave was released, the system will download Mojave from the Internet and install it.

⇧Shift + ⌥Option (Alt) + ⌘Cmd + R– installation of the version of macOS that was originally installed on the computer (or the closest available version to it).

Note: macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or newer required.

4 . Then the window “ macOS Utilities"(on versions lower than macOS High Sierra may be called "macOS Utilities"). Here you need to select " Disk Utility" and click " Continue";

Checking and fixing boot disk errors (recommended)

1 . In Disk Utility, select your drive from the menu on the left (usually a Macintosh HD, it's at the very top).

2 . Click on First Aid.

3 . Click Launch. The application will check the boot disk for “health status”, i.e. functionality and correct existing errors. This process may take some time.

4 . Once the scan is complete, click Finish.

Erasing the boot disk

1. In the Disk Utility application, select a verified startup disk, go to the “Erase” section (at the top of the screen);

2. On the menu "Format" select APFS (for computers with macOS Sierra installed and an older version of the OS, select Mac OS Extended) and click " Erase";

3. Once the disk formatting process is complete, click " Finish" to exit Disk Utility.

Reinstalling the macOS operating system (factory reset)

Reinstall macOS using the appropriate item (screenshot below) and follow the instructions. The latest version of macOS will be downloaded from the Internet and the macOS reinstallation process will begin. During this time, the computer may restart.

Note: If you're installing from scratch, you'll have to configure your Mac and program settings all over again.

Based on materials from yablyk

The new OS at the time of release turned out to be more stable than the previous one, but, unfortunately, it is not without its drawbacks. Some users are facing various issues after upgrading to OS X El Capitan. Here are five of the most common problems and how to solve them.

1. Errors during the update process

Symptoms

After downloading the OS X El Capitan installer from the Mac App Store and running it, an error occurs that interrupts the installation process.

Reasons

Most often, this happens due to the fault of currently running applications and processes that do not support OS X El Capitan. Another reason is application incompatibility with System Integrity Protection.

Solution

In this case, a regular reboot or power cycle will help. Running processes will be terminated and the installer should work properly. In more advanced cases, you will need to boot into safe mode, which will launch only vital OS components, without third-party extensions. To do this, you need to hold down the Shift key while booting your Mac.

2. Problems with Spotlight

Symptoms

Spotlight has received even greater integration with the system and web services, so sometimes after installation there is an increased level of processor load and resource consumption.

Reasons

Spotlight must index all data to function properly, and problems are usually caused by corrupted databases that were previously created.

Solution

Experienced Mac users leave their computer alone for an hour and a half immediately after installation, allowing Spotlight and the system to complete all the necessary actions. But, if this does not help, you will have to take more radical measures and delete the database manually. To do this, you need to launch “Terminal” and enter the following commands one by one:

Mdutil -Ea mdutil -ai off mdutil -ai on

The first command will delete the existing database, and the second and third will disable and immediately restart the service. Spotlight will then create a new database and begin indexing it. The process takes some time, so you will have to wait.

3. Microsoft Office 2016 application crashes

Symptoms

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook applications crash or freeze.

Reasons

Microsoft has confirmed that a bug (or several) is preventing Office 2016 from running on OS X El Capitan. Moreover, regardless of whether a clean installation or update was done.

Solution

Microsoft is currently working on this problem, so for now there is nothing left to do but use alternative solutions like Google Docs or Open Office.

4. Applications do not work correctly

Symptoms

One or more of your apps worked fine on OS X Yosemite, but after upgrading to OS X El Capitan they work incorrectly or not at all.

Reasons

In fact, there can be a lot of reasons. Most often, the problem lies in software incompatibility, limitations or OS features.

Solution

The first step is to check the compatibility of a particular application with OS X El Capitan by visiting the official website of the developer. Most of them try to have a compatible version ready for the release of the new OS X, but sometimes this can take some time, especially in the case of solo developers and small companies. As a rule, you should just wait for a new version of the application.

5. Problems setting up a user account

Symptoms

During the installation process or at its final stage, the user is prompted to enter a password for his account, but the system does not accept it, even if the password is entered correctly.

Reasons

The nature of this problem is not entirely clear, as it occurs randomly among a small number of users. Somehow the installation process is interrupted and cannot be completed.

Solution

As you probably already guessed, there is no other way other than restarting the installation. You need to restart your Mac, or better yet, turn it off and on, and then start the installation process again.

This list contains the most basic problems, but of course there may be more. If you have encountered other problems and know the solution, be sure to write about it in the comments!

Reinstalling macOS does not require offline media. Apple officially recommends that users use a network installation of the system. You can run it from a special recovery partition on your hard drive or using the Internet Recovery function. In this article we will tell you how to reinstall macOS using both methods.

Every Apple computer comes with the OS pre-installed. It doesn’t matter whether you buy an all-in-one iMac or MacBook in any modification: Pro, Air or 12-inch Retina. Not every user will remember the version of the operating system it was on when purchased. Regular free macOS updates eliminate the need to fill your head with this information. You may need it when you decide to reinstall the system.

Click on the apple logo in the upper left corner of the menu bar. In the list that opens, select the topmost item marked in the screenshot.

On the main tab we can find out the installed version of macOS. Below is information about the model and release date of the laptop.

If you are not an obvious opponent of updates, then you should have the latest OS version available for your hardware configuration. Otherwise, knowing the model and year of manufacture will allow you to determine it.

Available options

Now that we know the necessary information about our Mac, let's look at the available options. There are only three options, which are selected by different key combinations pressed when starting the computer:

reinstalling the current version of the operating system using the recovery partition on your hard drive or SSD – (Command ⌘ + R);
Restoring to the old OS installed at the time of purchase. Depending on the year of release, this could be Mountain Lion, Yosemite or El Capitan – (Command ⌘ +Option ⌥ + R);
Download and install the latest version of macOS that your Mac supports - (Shift + Command ⌘ + Option ⌥ + R).

An indispensable condition for the successful completion of all the actions described below is to connect the computer to the Internet. You will need it instead of installation media to download the required distribution.

Call up the system menu and reboot.

Depending on the selected reinstallation option, press and hold the desired keyboard combination. Using the Option ⌥ key launches Internet Recovery. You can release the buttons when a rotating globe appears on the monitor. The indicator below it shows the time until disk utility starts, which will depend on the connection speed. The download source is automatically detected and your Mac's serial number is used to find the initial OS version.

After choosing to reinstall from the recovery partition to the SSD, wait until the loading bar logo appears on the screen. After this, the keys can be released. Any of the options used will lead us to the appearance of a window with macOS utilities. The next steps depend on whether you want to keep the previously created system settings or prefer a clean installation.

The usual reinstallation option will keep all user data in place, updating only the OS. By selecting Disk Utility, you can completely erase the boot volume. If the second system is Windows installed, the Boot Camp partition can be left unchanged.

Installing macOS

Using Disk Utility is recommended when it is impossible to perform the usual one. For example, the installer diagnoses problems that may prevent the operation from completing without formatting the volume. When reinstalling and returning to the old version of the OS, erasing the system disk is a mandatory procedure. Otherwise, the macOS installer will report that it has detected a more recent version and refuse to continue.

Open Disk Utility on the left side of the window and select “Macintosh HD.” By default, the OS always uses this name for the system volume. In the top menu, the “Erase” checkbox will become active. In the drop-down window, select the file type indicated in the screenshot. In some cases, at this stage the third line asks you to select a hard disk partition scheme. For all versions of macOS we set the GUID.

High Sierra supports the new APFS file system, adapted to work with SSDs. The installer will automatically select it when you reinstall to the latest current version of the OS. You don't have to enable disk encryption at this stage. If necessary, this can be done on an already installed system by activating the FileVault function. After formatting, close Disk Utility and start the installation.

We accept the license agreement by clicking the marked button in the drop-down menu.

The next few steps will allow you to complete the initial settings by specifying your preferred keyboard layout and region of residence. At the final stage, so that previously saved Safari bookmarks and music in iTunes appear in a clean OS, select login with Apple ID.

During the installation process, the computer will reboot several times on its own. Progress is shown by a filling indicator bar and a countdown timer.

In conclusion

As you can see, if you have an Internet connection, reinstalling macOS is not a difficult task. Creation in this case is a waste of time and may only be required if you want to use an OS version intermediate between the preinstalled and the current one.

Video instructions

The video below shows in detail all the steps described. After reviewing it, you can confidently proceed when reinstalling macOS yourself.

Sooner or later the day comes when you need to reinstall the Mac OS operating system on your MacBook PC. This task is no more difficult than reinstalling Windows. This is what we will talk about.

operating system on MacBook

The reasons for reinstalling the MacOS operating system on a Mac computer are as follows:

Damage or wear of the built-in storage device (HDD);
selling or donating a MacBook to another person;
“moving” to another MacBook (a newer model, but maintaining the previous version of the MacOS system);
transferring data to Apple gadgets or to another computer.

What happens when reinstalling MacOS:

“from scratch”, including formatting the built-in disk;
reinstallation “on top”, preserving personal data and applications (macOS update).

For example, using the MacAppStore, you can upgrade your version of OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion to a newer version - OS X Mavericks.

Here are the steps to follow when selling or transferring your Mac to someone else. It deserves special mention.

Backing up personal data from a MacBook to a separate media or cloud service.
Disabling special services and functionality that manage data copying and transfer.
Erase all personal information from the disk.

Attention! Before you start reinstalling MacOS on your MacBook PC, take the trouble to save all your data on an external drive! This will be discussed first.

Backing Up Data Using Time Machine

The Time Machine application is designed to backup personal files from a MacBook and restore them back to it. But it requires external USB drives (HDD, SDD drives) formatted in MacOS Extended or Xsan - FAT/NTFS file systems designed for Windows and Android are not supported. If the disk was previously formatted in FAT/NTFS formats, the MacBook will not accept it if you refuse to reformat it to your liking.

The Time Machine application is launched from the MacOS system preferences in the Apple menu. When you connect an external hard drive, a corresponding notification will appear.

Do you really want to destroy all data recorded on this drive in a different format?

If the external drive has already been formatted, the Time Machine application will give the go-ahead for its use. Confirm your request.

Do you really want to copy your data to this drive?

If Time Machine does not show disk selection, do the following.

Interestingly, backups in the Time Machine program are fully automated - the backup copy is “refreshed” hourly, and their storage is organized, so you won’t get lost in them. In addition, copying is also possible to an Apple server (like iCloud) and to local network storage that supports the Apple File Protocol. All this often helps, if you need to reinstall MacOS, to avoid losing precious working time.

After copying all your data, you can start reinstalling MacOS.

Reinstalling MacOS on Mac

There are several ways to reinstall the MacOS operating system on a MacBook: a “clean” installation from a flash drive, installation “over” a previous version (updating from MacAppStore) and restoring MacOS from a backup.

How to reinstall Mac OS from an installation flash drive

The preliminary steps are as follows.

Download the Mac OS X installation image from the Mac App Store or third-party sites.
Once the download is complete, right-click on the downloaded file and select “Show package contents.”
Go to the /Contents/SharedSupport/ folder, copy the InstallESD.dmg file to a safe location on your disk, and mount it to your MacOS desktop.

We will need the Disk Utility application included with MacOS. The next steps are as follows.

Disk Utility will create an installation flash drive automatically, and it does this operation quite reliably. When copying is complete, Disk Utility will notify you.

Congratulations! The MacOS installation flash drive has been created! You can restart your MacBook. Preparing to install MacOS is as follows.

All! MacOS installation has started. The MacOS operating system will install automatically - this will take 30-100 minutes, depending on the performance of your MacBook. After it, your PC will be immediately ready for use.

How to install the system without formatting the internal drive

Installing MacOS without erasing the disk means downloading and installing MacOS updates directly from the MacAppStore. An installation flash drive is not needed here. This is reminiscent of updating iOS on smartphones and tablets over the air. This method is good for those who once bought a MacBook - and are not going to change it, but, on the contrary, will work on it for many years, because MacBook computers, like Apple iDevice gadgets, are very high quality, reliable and convenient.

Before updating, check whether your MacBook meets the hardware requirements of the new version of MacOS - otherwise it will slow down.

Not every previous version of MacOS can be updated to the desired version. So, if your MacBook is running macOS Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and your MacBook will run macOS Sierra, first upgrade to macOS X El Capitan.

The version of MacOS Sierra is taken as an example. Other copies are searched for and “installed” in exactly the same way. Your actions are as follows.

If you have OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 (or more recent), the macOS Sierra version downloads silently. You will then be prompted to install this version.

Click on the install button

During the installation of MacOS, the PC restarts several times. If this version does not suit you (the performance of the MacBook has dropped), “roll back” to the previous one (for example, OS X El Capitan), with which the PC performance was very satisfactory.

Restoring MacOS from a backup

For example, we take a “rollback” from MacOS Sierra (10.12) back to OS X El Capitan (10.11) or OS X Yosemite (10.10). Let's say there are backups made in the Time Machine application before installing MacOS Sierra.

Important! You can restore a MacOS system from a backup only on the same MacBook. Trying to transfer your copy of MacOS with data to another PC in this way is useless. Use other methods.

Connect your external drive to your MacBook and save your existing files to Time Machine, naming the new copy MacOS Sierra.
Open a previous copy of OS X Yosemite with Time Machine on a different drive after connecting it to your MacBook.
Restart your MacBook while holding Command+R on your keyboard. The familiar MacOS recovery menu will open.
From the OS X Utilities menu, select Restore from Time Machine Backup.
Once in the “Recover from Time Machine” recovery window, click on “Continue”, and then specify the source - the disk with the OS X El Capitan “backup”.
The saved copy should be: In the case of OS X El Capitan, the MacOS version should be 10.11.x. Click the Continue button. Specify the installation disk to restore from a copy, click on “Restore”.

Ready! The OS X El Capitan version will be reinstalled.

Transferring a copy of the operating system and your data to another MacBook

Go to Programs/Utilities and open Migration Assistant. The structure of your files and folders will be preserved.

Click to continue

When running, the application requires closing all other running programs.

If both computers are working, but you still want to duplicate your version of MacOS and all data on the second computer, connect the computers to each other using a LAN cable via a Wi-Fi wireless network. Connecting directly using a Thunderbolt or FireWire cable will require running your previous Mac in backup mode, which will make the Assistant experience a little more complicated. However, both methods work clearly. You can connect an external disk with a backup copy to the new PC instead of the previous PC - in this case, the operation of the Assistant on the new PC will not change significantly.

So, the procedure is as follows. As an example, we take the normal operating mode of a previous PC with “Assistant”.

All! The copy session has started. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, depending on the amount of data and the performance of both Macs.

Problems encountered when reinstalling MacOS

Problems when updating or “rolling back” may be as follows.

No recent backups. You once disabled backup yourself. Copy your files now to avoid losing them by starting the process manually. Enable backup.
An error occurred during the next backup or when restoring personal data from a previous copy. The external drive that was previously recorded is unsuitable for further use. Contact an Apple service center or certified computer repair shop to restore your data. This procedure is not free.
Error during the next MacOS update. Your Mac PC may no longer be supported. This happens once every few years. You will continue to use the current version of MacOS until you replace your Apple PC.
The computer began to work noticeably slower than before the update. The minimum system requirements of the next new version are equal to or exceed the technical specifications of your PC. “Roll back” to any previous version of MacOS. Typically, Apple tries to prevent this from happening - it simply stops supporting older computers, just as it is no longer possible to install iOS 10.x on iPhone 4x devices.
After several active years, your PC suddenly began to freeze despite the fact that you did not update MacOS. Maybe it's time to replace the internal HDD/SSD drive? Try to back up your important data before replacing the internal drive - while something is still being read from it.
It is impossible to “roll back” to one of the previously installed versions of MacOS. The “rollback” must be done gradually. If there are no previous backups, download a new “image” and “roll back” to this version first, and then repeat the “roll back” to an even earlier version of MacOS.

Video on the topic

Reinstalling MacOS - “on top” or “from scratch” - is not difficult. It is only important to secure your data. This is a real way to extend the life of your beloved MacBook for another number of years. You will succeed!

For developers. Unfortunately, some OS X El Capitan users will not have the opportunity to migrate to the new software platform.

They turned out to be higher than the previous version of the operating system. The 2007 and 2008 iMacs have disappeared from the compatibility list. Owners of 13-inch MacBooks 2008 and 2009 will not have access to the platform. MacBook Pro 2007, 2008 and 2009 will also not support the platform. Owners of the 2008 and 2009 Mac Pro, as well as the 2009 Mac mini, were also left behind.

The developers from the Dosdude project decided to restore justice. They created a special utility “macOS Sierra Patcher” that solves the problem of updating to macOS Sierra for Mac models that are not officially supported by this OS.

List of requirements:

macOS Sierra Developer Preview installation file.
USB flash drive with a capacity of at least 8 GB.
macOS Sierra Patcher tool available.

How to install macOS Sierra on unsupported models

Step 1: Connect the flash drive to your computer, open Disk Utility and format the flash drive in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

Step 2: Run the macOS Sierra Patcher utility and in the program window, specify a copy of the previously downloaded installation file macOS Sierra Developer Preview Installer.

The program should confirm successful image verification with the message “Successfully verified as “Install 10.12 Developer Preview”.

Step 3: In the program window, select the USB drive in the Target Volume list and click the “Start Operation...” button.

Step 4: Once completed, launch your Mac from the macOS Sierra flash drive. To do this, after restarting the computer, hold down the Alt button on the keyboard.

Step 5: After starting the installer, open Disk Utility.

Step 6: Select the drive or partition on which you will install the new OS and delete all data on it, making sure that the format is OS X Extended (Journaled). If you format the entire disk, select GUID.

Step 7: Continue with the normal installation of macOS Sierra.

Step 8: Once the installation of macOS Sierra is complete, reboot your computer from your USB flash drive. This time you need to open the macOS Post Install application (from the Utilities drop-down menu).

Step 9: In the program, select your Mac model. The utility will automatically suggest recommended settings depending on your computer. You can change them at your discretion.

Step 10: In Select Volume, select the drive on which you installed macOS Sierra and click the Patch button.

Step 11: Once completed, click Reboot. Before rebooting, it may take several minutes to rebuild the cache.

Step 12: After a normal reboot, your Mac will boot into macOS Sierra.

Clean installation of macOS: preliminary steps

IMPORTANT: Before a clean installation (reinstallation, flashing, factory reset) of a Mac, be sure to check:

Is your Mac tied to your Apple ID and not some other one?
Do you remember the credentials (username and password) of your Apple ID. You can check, for example, by logging in (from your computer).

How to find out (see) which iPhone, iPad, Mac are linked to Apple ID.
How to recover (reset) a forgotten Apple ID password for iCloud, iTunes and App Store.
What will be deleted if you sign out of iCloud on iPhone, iPad and Mac?

How to reset Macbook, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro to factory settings (how to reinstall macOS)

1. Make sure you have an Internet connection (for later installation of macOS), as well as a power connection in the case of a MacBook.

Attention! Further actions will lead to the complete deletion of ALL data on the Mac - save the necessary information on external media in advance;

2. Restart your computer (or turn it on if it was turned off) using the  menu → Reboot;

3. During the reboot process, press and hold the key combination that suits you best:

⌘Cmd + R– installing the version of macOS that was running on the computer before problems arose. Those. your Mac will install exactly the same version as before.

⇧Shift + ⌥Option (Alt) + ⌘Cmd + R– installation of the version of macOS that was originally installed on the computer (or the closest available version to it).

Note: macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or newer required.

4 . Then the window “ macOS Utilities"(on versions lower than macOS High Sierra may be called "macOS Utilities"). Here you need to select " Disk Utility" and click " Continue";

Checking and fixing boot disk errors (recommended)

1 . In Disk Utility, select your drive from the menu on the left (usually a Macintosh HD, it's at the very top).

2 . Click on First Aid.

3 . Click Launch. The application will check the boot disk for “health status”, i.e. functionality and correct existing errors. This process may take some time.

4 . Once the scan is complete, click Finish.

Erasing the boot disk

1. In the Disk Utility application, select a verified startup disk, go to the “Erase” section (at the top of the screen);

2. On the menu "Format" select APFS (for computers with macOS Sierra installed and an older version of the OS, select Mac OS Extended) and click " Erase";

3. Once the disk formatting process is complete, click " Finish" to exit Disk Utility.

Reinstalling the macOS operating system (factory reset)

Note: If you're installing from scratch, you'll have to configure your Mac and program settings all over again.

Based on materials from yablyk

I'll start with the background. My parents have a home computer and it is a 2012 Mac Mini. We once gave it to them and solved a bunch of problems with it: they stopped complaining about viruses, I no longer had to study Windows manuals in order to solve the next misfortune that befell the Microsoft system. I just did a little training on the basics and said, “Do what you want!”

Everything was fine until complaints about the slow operation of the system began to come in. And they had OS X Yosemite. There is nothing to do - the simplest solution is to install the update. Due to slow Internet (or some other problem), the App Store was interrupting the download of OS X El Capitan. I had to go to torrent and download the system and then install it.

But during the installation I encountered the problem “This copy of the program could not be verified... It may have been corrupted or modified during the download process.

After googling a little, I found out that Apple signs not only iOS, but also OS X. Therefore, it prohibits installing older versions of the system. That is, I had the OS X El Capitan 10.11 installer, and the current system version is 10.11.3.

The solution to the problem is ridiculously simple. It is necessary to set any date in the system when the downloaded version was current. For example, October 20, 2015.

After such a simple manipulation, the El Capitan installation was successful.

I don't remember if there were similar problems before or if this check appeared with El Capitan. But for the future, the method is worth remembering.

Good luck to everyone and fewer mistakes!

This article will help you install the macOS Mojave 10.14.x operating system on your Mac using the utility macOS Mojave Patcher.
And first of all, the article will be useful to owners of outdated Mac models, but quite functional today.

Also, owners of Mac models officially supported by the macOS Mojave operating system may encounter difficulties installing the original system.
For example, some owners of Mac Pro 5.1 models or Mac Pro 4.1 models flashed in Mac Pro 5.1 installing macOS Mojave 10.14 (namely the first build dated September 25, 2018) most likely will not be able to install the operating system from a flash drive (clean installation) even if they have a video card with Metal support, but will only be able to update the installed macOS High Sierra.
The second reason for this particular installation may be the user’s unwillingness to flash a new version of Boot ROM: 138.0.0.0.0 into their Mac. for the same Mac Pro 5.1, in order to maintain the ability to roll back to previous Apple operating systems.

The article has been translated and adapted into Russian, for those users who find it difficult to read from English.
You can find the original article by following the link (will open in a new tab).

So let's get started...

Early 2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, and MacBook Pro:

MacPro3,1
MacPro4,1
iMac8,1
iMac9.1
iMac10.x
iMac11.x*
iMac12.x*
MacBookPro4,1
MacBookPro5,x
MacBookPro6,x
MacBookPro7,1
MacBookPro8,x

*Systems with AMD Radeon HD 5xxx and 6xxx GPUs will be virtually unusable when running Mojave. For more information, see the known issues section below.

Late 2008 or newer MacBookAir or Aluminum Unibody MacBook:

MacBookAir2,1
MacBookAir3,x
MacBookAir4,x
MacBook5,1

Early 2009 or newer Mac Mini and white MacBooks:

Macmini3,1
Macmini4,1
Macmini5,x
MacBook5,2
MacBook6,1
MacBook7,1

Early 2008 release Early-2008 or later Xserve:

Macmini3,1
Macmini4,1
Macmini5,x
MacBook5,2
MacBook6,1
MacBook7,1

Release 2006-2007 all Mac Pro, iMacs, MacBook Pros and Mac Mini models:

MacPro1,1
MacPro2,1
iMac4,1
iMac5.x
iMac6.1
iMac7.1*
MacBookPro1,1
MacBookPro2,1
MacBookPro3,1
Macmini1,1
Macmini2,1

* iMac 7.1 from 2007 is compatible if the CPU is upgraded to T9300 Core 2 Duo (Penryn).

MacBook models 2006-2008:

MacBook1,1
MacBook2,1
MacBook3,1
MacBook4,1

MacBook Air 2008 model:

MacBook Air 1.1

Graphics Anomalies: Currently, conditionally Metal-enabled graphics cards used in Mojave will produce a strange dark gray Menu Bar and Finder Sidebar when using the Light theme. In the dark theme, however, these anomalies are not present.

AMD Radeon HD 5xxx/6xxx series GPU acceleration: It is currently not possible to get full graphics acceleration when running Mojave on a system using graphics cards with a Radeon HD 5xxx or 6xxx series GPU. Mojave will be virtually unusable without graphics acceleration. This applies to 15" and 17" MacBook Pro models (MacBookPro8, 2 and 8.3). If you want to enable GPU acceleration on these machines, you will need to disable the AMD GPU (this will only work on MacBook Pro 8.2 and 8.3 systems. You cannot disable the AMD GPU on an iMac.) Strange colors will also appear when running Mojave with one of these video cards installed/enabled. To disable the AMD graphics card on a 2011 MacBook Pro 8.2 or 8.3, follow the instructions here.

GPU support in Mac Pro 3.1 (Early 2008): You cannot use a new AMD graphics card with Mojave, even if it supports Metal technology and is supported in Mojave. The new AMD drivers used in Mojave require the SSE4.2 instruction set from the computer's processor(s), Mac Pro 3.1 processors do not support these instructions. There is currently no way around this. Your only option is to upgrade the graphics card for MacPro3.1 systems to an nVidia card that will work great.
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Built-in iSight Cameras: Built-in iSight cameras currently do not work correctly on some machines. It will probably work, but before installing, be aware that your iSight camera may not work.

Trackpad (MacBook 5.2 only). The trackpad on MacBook5.2 is not fully supported in Mojave. While it works and is fully usable, Mojave detects it like a regular mouse, preventing you from changing some trackpad-centric settings.

Mac computers that use the Broadcom BCM4321 (BCM94321) WiFi module will not have functional WiFi when running Mojave, and support for these modules has been discontinued starting with macOS Sierra. This usually applies to MacPro3.1, MacBook5.2, MacBookPro4.1, iMac8.1, Macmini3.1 and MacBookAir2.1 computers. Please note that not all of these machines will have an unsupported card, this is simply a list of machines that are known to ship with this card in some configurations.
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You can find out if you have an unsupported card by opening System Profiler (click Apple > About This Mac > System Report), and click on Wi-Fi under Network. Pay attention to the value specified for the Card Type field.

Below are the IDs of Wi-Fi modules that do not work in Mojave:

(0x14E4, 0x8C)
(0x14E4, 0x9D)
(0x14E4, 0x87)
(0x14E4, 0x88)
(0x14E4, 0x8B)
(0x14E4, 0x89)
(0x14E4, 0x90)

* Any ID not listed above, such as (0x14E4, 0x8D), is a supported card and will work fine in Mojave.

What you will need:

1. A copy of the Mac OS Mojave installer.
You can download it from the Mac App Store using a Mojave-enabled computer, or using the built-in download feature directly from the macOS Mojave Patcher utility. Launch macOS Mojave Patcher and from the menu bar simply select "Tools > Download macOS Mojave..." as shown in the image below:

2. USB drive of at least 16 GB in size

3. macOS Mojave Patcher utility
Download the latest version: Link 1 or Link 2

* You can view the list of changes (in English) and download previous versions of the utility.

Mojave installation process:

1. Insert your USB drive (remember, at least 16 GB), open Disk Utility and format it as OS X Extended (Journaled).

2. Open the previously downloaded “macOS Mojave Patcher” utility and find your copy of the macOS Mojave Installer installation program; as a rule, the macOS installer is usually downloaded to the Applications folder.
Do as in the picture below:

A window should appear indicating that the utility has successfully verified the macOS Mojave Installer application. Click the "OK" button

3. Then select the USB drive from the drop-down list on the right and click the wide "Start Operation" button.
See the picture below:

4. When the installation flash drive is ready, you need to boot from it. To do this, turn your Mac off and on again, hold down the Option (ALT) key and choose to boot from the flash drive.
See the picture below:

Note: Follow steps 5 and 6 if you want to do a clean install. If you're already familiar with installing macOS, you can simply skip these steps and install the Mojave operating system on a previous version of OS X, which will then perform an in-place upgrade.

5. Once the installer has downloaded, open Disk Utility from the utility menu or double-click it in the utility window in the lower left corner of the screen.
See the picture below:

6. Select the drive or partition on which you want to install macOS Mojave and click Erase, then select the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or APFS file system. When formatting an entire disk, make sure that the disk partition is set to GUID.

Use APFS for 2009 and later models, it will work the same as on macOS High Sierra.
It is recommended to use APFS only if you are installing Mojave on an SSD drive.

If you have a Mac that didn't natively support High Sierra (and therefore can't boot from an APFS volume natively), note the following:

If you are using APFS, you will not have a bootable recovery partition (Recovery HD).
If you choose to use APFS, the bootloader will be installed by the utility later because the firmware of these unsupported machines does not support booting from APFS volumes. This is not a completely native loading method, but will not cause any problems while running Mojave. You can watch a demo of the download process.

* It should be noted that if for some reason you are installing the operating system on an officially supported Mac model with a video card that supports Metal, then at this stage the installation is complete and you do not need to complete steps 8-11. Just restart your Mac.

8. Once the installation is complete, reboot again while holding down the Option (ALT) key and select boot from the flash drive again. Once downloaded, open the "mac OS Post Install" application.
See the picture below:

9. A window will open in which you need to select your Mac model from the top section “Choose your Mac Model” in the drop-down list. After selecting your Mac model, the optimal checkboxes (checkboxes) will be marked automatically for your model. You can also check other boxes of your choice, but this is generally not required.

10. At the bottom, in the Select Volume section, in the drop-down list, select the volume on which you just installed Mac OS Mojave and click "Patch". When the utility installs all the selected patches, click "Restart". Your Mac may take a few minutes to rebuild its cache before rebooting.

*If for some reason the system does not work correctly after rebooting, boot back into the installation disk, run "mac OS Post Install" again and select "Force Cache Rebuild" before rebooting. In most cases this is not necessary.

11. After restarting, your Mac should boot into a fully functional macOS Mojave operating system.

Additional information:

When you install the Mac OS Post Install tool, Mojave installs the "Patch Updater" program located in the /Applications/Utilities folder. This program will alert you when new patch updates are available for your machine and prompt you to install them. If you do not have Patch Updater installed, but want to install it, you can download and install this program, click on the link and after downloading, unzip the archive.

Reinstalling patches:

During an update to macOS Mojave, some of our fixes may be overwritten. Using the Patch Update Tool, you can reinstall these patches with one click. To do this, open the Patch Updater application and select "View Installed Updates", or use the "View > Show Installed Updates" menu in the menu bar.